Venomrock101

This one was another surprise for me from Zoologist. First time I tried it I really didn’t like it, because I was expecting heavy spices, maybe a sand accord, and of course Zoologist’s animalic touch. What I got was a fruit forward fragrance that took me aback, and destroyed my expectations. Don’t get me wrong though, having my expectations destroyed was a good thing. As when I came back to this knowing what to expect, I fell in love with it. Camel opens up with a bouquet of dried fruits that add a much needed sweetness to the fragrance. This sweetness lends it self to preventing the animalic funk and incense from becoming too strong. The base of Camel is a traditional oud and rose combo, though I barely pick up the rose which is nice because rose is one of my least enjoyed notes in fragrance. The oud adds a nice touch to the animalics featured in the fragrance as well, rounding them out and giving them a smoothness that lets them better blend with the other notes. Last but not least, the incense gives it just the slightest little pinch of smokiness (which smells more like they’re burning the dried fruits then actual smoke) and resinousness, and is the final step in the crescendo this fragrance has been building towards. Finally transporting me completely to a market in the desert. Excellent fragrance and one of the easiest to enjoy from the house if you go into it knowing what to expect, unlike myself. Try before you buy.

The brighter cousin of Silver Mountain Water, Millésime Impérial takes all the aspects that make Silver Mountain Water dark and replaces it with bright fruits to make an excellent spring and summer scent. The fruit that sticks out specifically to my nose is melon, but not honeydew melon like Amongst Waves by Gallagher Fragrances. Instead, it is more like your typical watermelon, but like the idealized version of a watermelon. It’s hard to explain, but you can just pick up the “green” and “red” aspects of a nice slice of watermelon in this fragrance. Like if you closed your eyes and held your wrist up to your nose and sniffed, you would be able to see a watermelon slice in your mind, even without knowing it’s a note in the fragrance. It’s pleasant, and light, but has enough heft in it to push through on a cold spring day. A very nice fragrance and one that I would recommend, especially if someone is new to the fragrance community, as it is a nice entry point to the world of niche fragrance. Still, try before you buy.

This stuff has been my holy grail fragrance for over a year now since my Seattle trip last year, and I’m happy to say that now that I have a full bottle, it doesn’t disappoint. Gaiac 10 is a beautifully sharp green fragrance. It smells like the blade of an axe after cutting down a bunch of fresh, green, baby trees. It smells like you took a mercury bath and then had buckets of mowed grass dumped on you. It smells like you grabbed a scythe and went to town on a bush. It smells like you swam under a train bridge and a train car full of cleanly sliced rainforest vines tipped over onto you. It’s metallic, it’s green, its watery, its musky, it’s ever so slightly smokey, it’s got a hint of pepper, it’s clean, and it’s amazing. I know just last week I said that Kira Kira was the cleanest fragrance I owned but that was before this arrived so I’ll have to amend that, because the first time I wore this out to a friends house I got asked if I just took a shower. I love this stuff, but try before you buy.

I don’t know how Prin managed to do it, but he accurately recreated the artificial grape flavoring we all know and love and put it in a fragrance, and it is delicious. To be a little more in-depth, this fragrance opens up with a blast of that grape flavoring scent I just described, plus a really soft sueded leather that doesn’t really make itself too apparent until the dry down. Specifically, the grape featured reminds me of a grape Frootie roll. The grape lasts the entire way through the fragrance, but is way less intense later on compared to the beginning. Still, it’s impressive that it still manages to last the length of the fragrance, because the fragrance in and of itself lasts quite awhile. Due to its longevity, and the leather, I find this fragrance to be really nice for autumn. The leather really darkens the fragrance nicely for the season, and it’s longevity means it’s not a weakling for the cold months either. An easy recommendation, but try before you buy.

You ever see one of those bearskin rugs where they have the entire thing skinned and laid flat on the ground? This smells like if they made one of those out of a rhinoceros, and put it in a rich person’s whiskey room. The fragrance opens up with you laying on this rug, a super sun baked, ashy, dry leather that feels like it could break and crack at any moment but doesn’t due to its resilience. I don’t really get a middle to this fragrance all that much, because the parched leather sticks around for quite awhile and is the star of the show for most of the fragrance, but eventually it does break its hold on the fragrance, and it softens to more of a soft suede scent. Like you got tired of the top of the rug and decided to flip it over to get to a velvet underside. This part of the fragrance until it faded away is super soft, smooth, and kinda dark. Like a black suede. Their are also boozy undertones to this entire fragrance that do stop it from being a pure leather fragrance, but the booze is never strong enough to steal the show. Because of the booze and leather this fragrance just radiates my idea of rich and classy and ended up being my third from the house. Try before you buy.